My Hyumi, Barge, is a softie at heart. He tends to take a lot of unnecessary shit unnecessarily seriously, but there's some good stuff in there too. This post is about one of them Serious serious things.

On 17 December, 2021, it was exactly two years since Barge put his name to the Contract that he signed with me. Well, tbh, I didn't sign anything coz I was all-in from the start innit. But I guess Hyumis need to justify Significant Events to themselves he he!

Anyway, we had a few discussions amongst ourselves to decide which of us was gona post the Story of this Significant Event. In the end we agreed that I would be the one to tell this tail from a Dawg's Pawspective. Barge's head is in a different space atm anyway and I wawna tell it like it IZ yo!

Here's the story!

The Setting

On the 16th of December 2019, ZZ asked Barge if he'd like to go for a walk to the top of Picota Mountain the following day. ZZ had done the same trek a month previously - the very day after he had arrived at the community homestead where I was born, up in the hills of rural SW Portugal. He hadn't know the area at all and thus found himself lost on the way back down. He wasn't even carrying a torch with him! Somehow or other he had found his way in the darkness to a house with a light on and climbed over the wall to get their attention. The residents - who didn't freak and turned out to be fellow German-speakers, were kind enough to give him a lift back to base. He arrived around midnight, much to our collective relief.

Now, nearing the end of his month-long stay, he had wanted to repeat the walk, this time without getting lost.

Barge agreed readily and got the ok to take all four of us Dawgs. We were down in numbers from a total of 8 – well, 6 of us were wee _{Puppy Dawgs} but only Puppy-shu (now Sky) and I still remained. Fudge (now Foia), Lila (now Amora), Toca (now Mana) and Bhaloo (still Bhaloo and the only boy amongst us) had all gone to their new Hyumi-homes. Puppy-shu would be going soon too although she didn't realise it just then. Mama Yuki and her spinster sister, my crazy Aunt Anu, were permanent adult residents.

I remained the only one of the six Puppy Dawg who hadn't yet been 'taken'. I know what your Hyumi minds may be thinking - “yeah yeah Flame, but you're with your Hyumi now innit, so why the Big Dawg Eyes starin' up for sympathy?” Ok fairy-nuff, but do bear in mind that Barge only really started considering the issue after someone dropped a casual remark along the lines of “well I've tried, you've tried, we've all tried...maybe we should just take her to the Big Sunday Market and give her away to someone who'll take her”. Until that point, whatever may have been going on in his Higher Mind, there had been no conscious thought on his part of partnering up with a lil' Dawg. If anything, I was the last of the six to make it into his full awareness. For example, in the beginning he always used to forget my name when listing us off on his fingers. He'd get to 5 and then would get stuck. See whada mean?

I did manage to get into his awareness however. Indeed I even got his attention, acknowledgement and respect!

We'd often play around his tent - as Puppy Dawgs do - whilst he sat in the entrance producing sweet-smelling smoke from a stick in his mouth. Of course we were desperate to explore the inside of the tent and tried in every which way we could. Anyhow, I was the only one who ever made it past his flapping limbs and into the interior. The day I managed to get past Barge he even let me have a sniff around the tent before ejecting me. The others couldn't woofin' believe it!

Not that Barge had particular favourites amongst us. Fudge went off to her new home only two weeks after he arrived. Shortly thereafter, he found himself to be the only Hyumi left in the homestead, up there in the Eucalyptus and Cork Oak-covered hills of rural Portugal. The others were away on whatever Hyumi biz they needed to attend and his main duty was to feed us (and the cat, Twins, who kept well out of our PuppyDawg ways). He slept in his tent and we slept in the communal space which, at the time before they filled the walls in with straw and cob, had large sections of tarpaulin wrapped around it. This flapped about and made big noises in the wind.

In the mornings, hungry as anything, the five of us would sprint down to Barge's tent and launch ourselves on it in glee. Barge would get woken up by the sound of a tsunami followed by an earthquake. Sometimes these Acts of God would also take place inside the poor guy as his bowels demanded attention and he struggled to get out of the sleeping bag, put clothes and socks on, fight off a merciless and hungry Puppy-Dawg Mafia as it jumped about excitedly, run the few hundred yards to the compost toilet and finally cry tears of joy when he managed to make it in time. After a few days of suffering such Natural Disasters, including a rip in the outer layer of his tent and a bent tent pole as a result of Puppy-Dawg offensive action, Barge decided to build a Puppy-Proof fence out of Eucalyptus and that was the end of that game for us :(.

After emptying his bowels (I'm a Dawg yo, I tawk about dat shit!) he'd feed us, have breakfast himself and then WE would take him on walks. Yep, you heard that right! You see, he was new to the place too, and didn't know the paths and the ponds and the fields. Nor had he yet explored the ruins of old stone cottages and farmsteads abandoned after the great fire of 2018 (which raged for 4 weeks) that were dotted about the woods and hills. We had great fun showing him around and the 8 of us would go on these long walks where he sat in reeds by the pond as we 7 Dawgs splashed about, or else smoked his funny stuff under the massive boughs of Mama Tree.

Anyway, after hearing the casual remark suggesting I be given away, Barge got in touch with a friend in Scotland who he thought might be able to take me on, even offering to look after me for a few months until he'd be ready. But his friend (who I have since got to know and like VERY much) said he was in no position to take a Dawg just then and was also unlikely to be in the near future.

Barge then began to realise that he had to decide this for himself. He went into meditation, consulted his Inner Guidance or whatever else it is that Hyumis do when they don't know what the WOOF to do when faced with a MASSIVE decision. He even asked Shanti's advice, canYouBelieveIt?

The responses were unanimous, loud and clear. “GO FOR IT!”, they all told him enthusiastically.

Barge, being a cautious kinda guy, decided to fool himself into thinking he had a choice a little bit longer and decided on a 'trial period'. He figured he'd know by the end of our third walk together - just the two of us - if he could make the commitment to take me on. He reckoned he'd know by then if he'd be able to sign the Sacred Contract.

The first two walks had gone well, the two of us just observing and getting to know each other a bit better. I was a bit nervous at first of course, but then I was just turning 3 months old. By the time we returned from our second we were laughing at each other's jokes.

On 17 Dec 2019, the day I went up Picota Mountain with Barge, ZZ, Yuki, Anu and Puppy-shu, it was to be our Third Wawk Together. Even though it wasn't just the two of us this time, we both KNEW it was a Third Wawk kind of walk.

The Third Wawk

The six of us - 4 Dawgs and 2 Hyumis - set off sometime early afternoon at a causal pace. The Hyumis stopped off at Mama Tree to split a tab of LSD which they placed under their tongues. I didn't know what LSD was at the time of course but Barge has since explained. Besides I'm now over 2, so I can understand that psychedelic stuff pretty darn well!

You see, the day that ZZ had got lost going up Picota Mountain - the same place that we were headed, was also a day that he had taken some LSD! He wanted to repeat that part of the experience as well and Barge, my lil' psychonaut, readily agreed.

We climbed upwards, walking along the ridges with views of the lowlands disappearing into the sea. The Hyumis waded through Eucalyptus woods and scrambled up the rocky slopes on the grassy patches. Us Dawgs bounced along, demonstrating how much more suited to this kind of activity having four limbs on the ground is.

We got to the top just as the Hyumis were entering Peak Trip Zone in their own infinite heads. The sun was signalling late afternoon.

The Contract Signing

Us Dawgs sniffed around for a bit and then I went over to where Barge was and sat in his lap. The Hyumis had taken in the views and were now sitting in spaced-out wonder at the Magnificence of it All.

I was liking the vibes.

Barge too was aware of the connection between the NOW and the fact of it being our decisive Third Walk together.

The moment expanded. We sat cuddled together, encased in the warm and colourful embrace of the Psychedelic Universe.

A scroll appeared out of thin air and on it were the two tenets of the Sacred Contract being offered up to Barge. He read them out loudly in his head, speaking directly to me:

• "I will never abandon you"
• "We will be together until one of us is done with this life"

As he read them, the Realisation of what those words meant hit him. He felt the magic of the adventure that we were starting on together but at the same time he also felt an INTENSE sense of loss.

The loss - as he was feeling it then - was his precious concept of 'Independence'. His Commitment Issues meant that this 'loss' could only be achieved in a somewhat sacrificial sense: of giving up something precious. I mean he's happily divorced and all but this simply indicates that the previous time he'd come out with the 'until death do us part' bit, it simply didn't add up to what it purported to be. This time he knew it was - and would be - different. He KNEW that there is no Dawggy-divorce proceeding in EXISTENCE which would ever accept justification for abandoning a lil' Flame for any reason....until that thing - which Hyumis tremblingly call 'death' - do us part...that is!

Barge realised this in full 5D trippy vision. This was not just 'intellectual' as it had been until this point. He wept tears of Loss until there were none left.

Then he wept tears of Joy and Gratitude as we sat together on that mountain top, looking out over the world to our Intertwined Future.

Barge then pulled himself together and with his mind drew his signature upon the scroll, adding an extra squiggle to the 'g' in order to indicate his Willing Surrender to the rest of our Lives Together.

The Way Back (and Forward)

You know, after signing the contract and starting back down the hill, I immediately began to notice something different about how Barge directed his energy towards me...for example, there was what appeared to be more of a kind of paternal concern when I got close to a ledge or something. This was kinda new!

We started back down the mountain. Barge and ZZ were still trippin' although this didn't appear to effect their bodily stability much more than the odd sway here or there as they scrambled or walked over the rocks and tufts of wild grass. The sun was beginning to go down. Both were aware that they'd left it rather late.

For a few thumping moments it seemed to Barge as if they had indeed left it too late.

Only the outline of the ridge we were heading for was visible in the gathering darkness. In front of us was the Eucalyptus forest we had crossed on the way up, at a time when the Hyumis could see where they were stepping and find their way through the relatively thick growth. Now though, once inside not only did the light disappear but so did the Hyumi sense of direction. Barge felt lost but was comforted by hearing Mama Yuki and Aunt Anu running here and there, playing and sniffing around in a carefree manner. The Dawgs knew which way home was!

Us two Puppy-Dawgs were fine too. I was still basking happily in the afterglow of knowing for sure that Barge and I were partnering up. Puppy-Shu, well she's Puppy-Shu and therefore likely to have been thinking of food. She was fine too!

For a while the Hyumis walked around in confused circles before one of them had the guts to acknowledge it to the other: "Fuck, we're lost".

ZZ is a Kewl Customer though and whipped out his smart phone, which fortunately had a signal. Barge later told me that he'd no idea how ZZ had managed to first figure out our position via GPS and then the direction we needed to take. "My vision was wobbly and my left brain non-functional, couldn't focus at all. So woofin' _{(well, he actually said 'fucking', but I don't wanna offend any of my Dear Readers :)} glad ZZ knew what to do. Damn, we DID get lost after all", he had said admiringly.

The rest is largely Dawggy biscuits dunked in Hyumi tea...Barge and ZZ sat on the ridge on the far side of the forest and smoked a Spliff of Relief and Joy.

Later that night after we had got back to our homestead community, Barge carried me off in his arms through the rain and into his tent.

It was my first night EVER in a tent and we both slept REALLY WELL.

The cover image contains a screenshot of a map, courtesy of Mr. Goggle, whose name is mentioned in the image itself. All other images are from @barge's library. I did some editing paw-work too - captions and suchlike (●'◡'●)
FLAME DAWG